On Sunday before first flight some practice tows with a masked DG had been done at Minden with Silvio and same SoaringNV Pawnee that would be used for actual First Flight. Jim was in front with Perlan-style masked canopy and Morgan was in back with clear canopy. Both pilots were happy with the visibility.

We are currently displaying the glider at the Reno Air Races. We have a lot of supporters in ths region and we promised to show them the glider. We will be here until Sunday afternoon, if you are in the area and can come and see it.

On the morning of September 9, 2015, everyone in Redmond was working to assemble all the components. Doug was arranging logistics. Morgan was working on final touches to software. Eric and RDD folks are working on interior of cockpits - wiring, instruments, panels, and seat pans.

Stewart cleaned the protective adhesive off the windows and placed yellow soft microfiber cloths for protection during final installations.

One of the most striking visual differences between a normal glider and the pressurized Perlan2 is the windows instead of a canopy. Dennis Tito's DG 1001 has a huge canopy with excellent viz, whereas the Perlan2 has 6 view ports and two transparent top hatches. So on Wednesday we masked the front cockpit of the DG to simulate Perlan's viz. The back cockpit for the co-pilot remained clear. Jim declared the viz totally acceptable. The Redmond Airport folks have given us awesome support. Leading Edge Jet Center has been super in providing a hangar to work in.

The Perlan 2 wing has passed one of its most dangerous tests: the 3G load test. First RDD had to build a beefy test stand to hold the wings aloft, but upside down. Sandbags equal to three times the weight of the whole glider were loaded onto the bottom surface of the wings to test if the wing can handle the load. It passed perfectly, with no concern to the heavy weight placed upon it. It was a tight fit to get the wing tips onto the wings. We had to use the upper corner of the ceiling.